I think they are perfect for work (as long as you are not unlucky enough to work somewhere that demands a tie). A t-shirt is too casual. Anyway, I don’t think t-shirts look good, with a few exceptions e.g. James Dean. I also prefer the feel of an open neck - so both a polo shirt and dress shirt with top button open are preferable to t-shirts.
At least around here, polo shirts have been fashionable for teenage boys for the last couple of years. Two years ago, none of them would have been seen dead in a collar, but now it is very much in fashion.
And you can definitely wear one to a job interview at my company. What’s the point in having an interviewee turn up in a suit when they will probably never have to wear one for work?
I agree with some of the OPs points: extra-large logos are naff, wearing polo shirts untucked is sloppy.
But why criticize polo shirts on the grounds that if you want to get dressed up you should wear a dress shirt? Of course you should - polo shirts are not meant to be for being “dressed up”. They provide a middle ground between “dressed up” and “slovenly” (t-shirts).
Like hell they do. Flip-flops everywhere are the domain of frat guys, sorority girls, good ol’ boys and average “college Joe” students. But no self-respecting faux-hipster would wear them; the faux-hipsters wear low vintage-style Asics, Tiger or Puma sneakers like these or these (or in some cases, for the faux-hipsters slightly behind the times, Chuck Taylors.)
I dress appropriately for the situation I may be in, but I make sure I’m comfortable at it, because looking stylish AND miserable is the province of young hipsters. So at the airport or the Mall or the grocery store, where there’s no expectation of a “uniform”, I’ll sure wear a polo with no qualms.
I like polos, but I do agree the knit collar is friggn useless except to pop. It crawls around while you wear it, and won’t sit right under a coat or other layer. They used to, and now again, have sewn collars sometimes, but this is a fashion and will disappear.
I own 12 or 13 polo shirts. I used to have 30, but my idiot ex-MIL-elect put them all in the dryer while I was in the hospital. Twit!
The polo meets all my fashion criteria: It’s comfortable, it covers the bikini areas, and I won’t be refused service in a nice restaurant if I’m wearing it. Polo and Chinos for work, polo and jeans for pweekends, polo and sweats for house- and yard-work. Polo by itself in the Summer, polo under cardigan in the Winter.
Unfortunately, in my new job I have to wear suits. I can’t wait to get home into my comfy polo and sweatpants in the evening!
Seriously? I have to see this, because wolf t-shirts make polo shirts look like a well tailored suit.
I agree on the polo shirt. I don’t hate them to the degree that others in this thread seem to, but the collar never looks right, and the shirt itself looks sloppy if you don’t iron it. I have two of them, both gifts from my mother the last time she visited, that I almost never wear.
Every male person in this town between the ages of 12 and 25 looks as if he’s wearing a uniform. Cargo shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops or crocs. Perhaps athletic shoes for church or a job interview.
If I was a guy that age, and wanted to get laid more often, I’d put in a little more effort and find some nice clothes. Even a polo shirt would be a start.
Can’t imagine what the fuck you are talking about.
I play a lot of golf - it is my main hobby. So I own a lot of golf shirts - which I assume are the same as what you call “polo” shirts. (Tho none of mine have the little polo player - I prefer non-logo ones.) They are, simply, the best attire for my preferred activity. Comfortable, decent looking, and can be laundered at home with minimal - if any - ironing.
So I’ve got a drawerful of golf shirts - am I supposed to buy another set of shirts to wear to work? To social occasions? And I prefer them to the crew-neck of t-shirts.
And I guess my bottomline is, I really don’t give a fuck what anyone other than my wife thinks about the way I look and dress - and she’s fine with them.
Someone who is hung up over polo shirts is IMO too hung up on their image. PLEASE tell me you aren’t one of those hipster doofuses who wears a t-shirt under a sportcoat . . .
Eh, you can wear polo shirts if you want, I won’t. I can’t stand wearing those things. They make me feel like I’m wearing a uniform. Where others would wear polos, I wear an unbuttoned button-down shirt over a white, gray, or black tee shirt. Unless you wear polo shirts at work, then I button the buttons… maybe throw on a tie if I know I’m going to have to interact with a customer.
Then lighten’ up, 'cause I was pretty less-than-serious, even after someone mentioned polo shirts are for douche bags.
*The left leaning, heavily under-achieving mass of misfits that is a majority of the SDMB aren’t the ones that should offer fashion advice, unless you are trying to figure out how to look the part of a pale gamer or pathetic cat lady. *
That’s more along the line of what I would have said if it were a ‘serious topic’.
And I think you’d find that wolf t-shirt defenders are generally not the ones who would be in this thread agreeing with the OP. There are some people on this board who are knowledgable in fashion; it’s just a rather small number, proportionally.
No. Those are for when I go to the Opera, or some other formal event.
